Sermon

218 ~ REVIVAL RAIN ON THE CHURCH

We Are Zion - Sermon Podcast

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  1. Hi and welcome to the Via Zion Sermon podcast.

  2. We are a local church based here in Chennai, India.

  3. We are so glad you are with us and hope that this will

  4. encourage, inspire and instill fresh faith in you.

  5. We celebrate today, the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit

  6. mightily moved in their upper room at Jerusalem.

  7. We are expectant of the same kind of move in these times in

  8. our lives. We believe that the revival

  9. reign of the Spirit will drench the body of Christ like never

  10. before in order to bring about the harvest that the prophet

  11. Joel spoke about. Are you ready for this revival

  12. to reign over you and your church?

  13. Hi Church. It's such a joy and a privilege

  14. to be bringing God's Word to you today, even as we are preparing

  15. ourselves for Pentecost Sunday, I believe God is stirring up the

  16. Church to be prepared. God is asking us be expectant.

  17. God is asking us that we'd be ready for His outpouring 2000

  18. years back. His outpouring came on the Upper

  19. room for the 120 odd people who are waiting.

  20. I believe, as we wait a week from now to celebrate that day.

  21. The reason we celebrate is a reminder that we are in

  22. desperate need of the Holy Spirit today more than ever

  23. before, and I love how the last two Sundays has set me up to

  24. speak today. I know we didn't stream our

  25. online service and we had a guest speaker here, but Jeremy

  26. spoke on the recipes of Revival and he spoke to experiences.

  27. Revival. We need to have certain things

  28. in place. One is to be extremely

  29. committed, to be extremely generous, and to be extremely

  30. sacrificial. And even last week, as Tina

  31. spoke about revival in families, she centered around this whole

  32. thing that we need to praise and to pray.

  33. We also saw that the river of God that she spoke about is

  34. where God resides and he wants us to flourish.

  35. And many at times it's us who's moving away from the river of

  36. God. It's not the river that

  37. disappears, but it's rather us which get so caught up with

  38. everything that's happening around that.

  39. We miss being around his presence.

  40. We miss being in his presence. And today, as we continue on, I

  41. have titled my sermon as Revival Starts with me, Revival Starts

  42. with me. And I want you to repeat that.

  43. Even wherever you're seated or wherever you're listening or

  44. wherever you're watching, would you repeat this?

  45. Revival starts with me. If you can just touch yourself

  46. and say it starts with me. You know, many a times we've

  47. seen and heard different outpourings happen.

  48. The last we heard was it entered into a university campus and

  49. they started experiencing the revival that got birthed out

  50. there. When a lot of them started

  51. coming in and just started experiencing Jesus, experiencing

  52. His Holy Spirit, experiencing His presence, they were

  53. convicted of their sin. They returned back to the cross.

  54. They exchanged their sin, their shame, and they received His

  55. grace and His life. We've heard from the Azusa St.

  56. We've heard different expressions happen.

  57. But many a times we are content knowing of these expressions,

  58. but we rather are safe for many times hoping that you know it

  59. doesn't. It shouldn't start with me, but

  60. the Holy Spirit today is saying revival starts with you and with

  61. me. Revival starts with me.

  62. And so today, even as we dwell a little deeper, I want God to

  63. really bring His word, enlighten His words, so that it'll not

  64. just remain like an enlightenment moment, but rather

  65. be a seed that falls in that this will become one of those

  66. milestones or those one of those markings that we have to say

  67. definitely it's after this that I have been intentional with

  68. what the Holy Spirit is asking me to say.

  69. And do you know when we think about revival, starting with me,

  70. there's a bit of us that we are scared about.

  71. You know, we we suddenly are so conscious of a lot of the

  72. defects that we all have. If I have to ask you, do you

  73. feel whole as a person? You know, you would say, you

  74. know what, I've I I don't feel WHOLE, but I feel a lot.

  75. I have a lot of HOLES. We feel we have a lot of holes

  76. in US, and every time it's a shortcomings, it's the things

  77. that we think we need perfection, we think we need,

  78. needs to look right, that we think, You know what, if this is

  79. not right, I don't think God can do any work in me, but I want to

  80. remind you that when God created us, He created us whole.

  81. When he thought of you and me in our mother's womb, when he knit

  82. us together, he thought of us whole.

  83. He didn't think. You know what?

  84. I leave Geshom with a defect, or I leave Geshom with this gaping

  85. hole in his in his life or in his physical form?

  86. No. In who he was as God when he

  87. created me, He created whole. But the problem is the condition

  88. I'm born into. This world has sin in it.

  89. So everything, that's what we are born into sin, we when we

  90. are born, we are born with so many things that don't work

  91. right for us. We find our upbringing, our

  92. challenges, our hardships, our struggles, the way we look, our

  93. colour, you know, everything adds up and we feel we're not

  94. whole. But today God's saying, even if

  95. you feel you're not whole, revival still starts with me.

  96. Revival still starts with you. So today what is my emphasis to

  97. say that you don't have to discount yourself thinking

  98. you're not whole our end. In fact there was a message

  99. which I just preached 2-3 weeks back and it was on the lines of

  100. our we are exiled citizens. And in the conclusion I had

  101. taken this passage from Haggai chapter 3 verse nine and in the

  102. message it says this we who are his temple today.

  103. It says this temple is going to end up far better then it

  104. started out. A glorious beginning, but an

  105. even more glorious finish. A place in which I will hand out

  106. wholeness and holiness is the decree of the God of the Angel

  107. armies. When we allow Jesus to come into

  108. our lives, when we allow His Holy Spirit to work in and

  109. through us, His residency is in our hearts, We become His temple

  110. and in turn, the characteristics of God start coming into us.

  111. We become whole and we become holy.

  112. Because wherever the Lord is there, His Holiness is.

  113. And so today, for a lot of us who are in the corporate world,

  114. for those of us who have gone through leadership courses and

  115. all that, we probably have come across this work called

  116. Enneagram. I completely agree with the

  117. anagram test. It's kind of demarcates us.

  118. It shows us how what we are, character are, what we have

  119. built up about what we can do, what we cannot do.

  120. And it has a very clear distinctive in terms of our

  121. personality traits. And I want us to come to a place

  122. to realize that even though we do all this, this helps us so

  123. that when we're in a team, we realize that each anagram number

  124. someone is different. You know?

  125. And so me expecting something of someone to do it this way may

  126. not be right because they they aren't wired that way, but

  127. oftentimes even allowed that to be dictating what the Holy

  128. Spirit can do in and through us. And God is saying today

  129. irrespective of what your enneagram you know personality

  130. traits are, there are totally 9 personality traits.

  131. Whatever those nine personality traits are for each and every

  132. personality trait revival is for each and every one of you.

  133. So don't discount that. So the after effects of sin have

  134. really left us helpless. When we see God move and want

  135. revival, we do discount. We fall short.

  136. We cancel ourselves. But every time the Spirit of God

  137. came upon someone, the more we read the Bible, the more you

  138. start meditating, the more you see his story intertwined with

  139. each other. How he built an entire nation,

  140. Israel, and how he led them on. And how in their disobedience,

  141. how they went into exile and captivity, and how he brought

  142. about the remnant doubt and how he established them.

  143. And through that we see Jesus coming into this world so that

  144. we all can be saved because his redemption was just not for a

  145. nation but was for entirety of mankind.

  146. We see at the end of it the revival that the Holy Spirit

  147. brings is 1 where you and me are very much involved.

  148. The story does not continue without us.

  149. We find it easier to say. You know what I think it's just

  150. for this particular group of people.

  151. You know, It could be either for the apostles or for the

  152. prophets, or for the evangelists, or for the

  153. teachers, or for the past as it's for them.

  154. Because we've come up with all these roles and we think, you

  155. know what? If that person fits that role,

  156. this is only for them. The word revival is for no

  157. revival is for everyone, because you and me today are the hands

  158. and feet of Jesus. I can't enter the spaces where

  159. God has ordained you to enter, and you eventually become a

  160. carrier of his revival into that very space.

  161. But today, are you willing to deceive it?

  162. Are you willing to receive it? Because today I want us to come

  163. to a place to realize when we are talking about revival, we

  164. are saying, Holy Spirit, you can take residency here.

  165. You can make this your home. This is your house.

  166. This is your place of holiness. Use me as you see fit.

  167. Maybe all this while you've accepted Jesus into your heart

  168. and you've not allowed the Holy Spirit to move.

  169. Or you've said you know what, God, I don't want the Holy

  170. Spirit. I don't know what background

  171. they're coming from. Probably, you know, we have so

  172. many backgrounds from Presbyterians, Baptists,

  173. Pentecostals, non denominational, whatever it is,

  174. we believe in God the Father, we believe in God the Son that is

  175. Jesus Christ, and we believe in God the Holy Spirit.

  176. And so today you need the Holy Spirit, He needs to move in and

  177. through you. That Spirit is what breeds life.

  178. And even as I was meditating and I was thinking, God, if that

  179. revival has to start in me, where do you want me to, you

  180. know, really look into your scriptures to really learn and

  181. see this from? And he led me to this book in

  182. John Chapter 4A story, which we, most of us have probably heard

  183. of Jesus meeting the Samaritan word.

  184. And so as part of our story today, we're going to see how

  185. revival starts with each and every one of us included not

  186. excluded. So the first thing I want us to

  187. make a note is when revival has to start with you and me

  188. involved in the mix. Revival first meets us in our

  189. mundane. Revival first meets us in our

  190. mundane. So what is that revival meeting

  191. us in our mundane? You might think, OK, you know

  192. what Revival will happen when we have a specific three day

  193. prayer. The spirit of God will move,

  194. yes, He will move. But us experiencing this

  195. revival, us saying that revival starts with me, means I need to

  196. take it into my Monday, into my Tuesday, into my Wednesday,

  197. Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

  198. It doesn't start on a Sunday and ends on a Sunday.

  199. It starts on a Sunday and continues on all the way to

  200. Monday, Tuesday, all the way through to Saturday.

  201. And I want us to read today from John Chapter 4, to see what this

    John 4 chapter mention

  202. is reading from John Four. And this is what it says.

  203. He had to go through Samaria on the way.

  204. Eventually he came to the Samaritan village of Sikkur,

  205. near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.

  206. Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired from the long walk,

  207. sat wearily beside the well about noontime.

  208. Soon as Samaritan came to draw water and Jesus said to her,

  209. please give me a drink. He was alone at that time

  210. because his disciples had gone into the village to buy some

  211. food. The woman was surprised, for

  212. Jews refused to have anything to do with Samaritans.

  213. She said to Jesus, You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman.

  214. Why are you asking me for a drink?

  215. Verse 10 Jesus replied. If you only knew the gift God

  216. has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me

  217. and I would give you living water.

  218. You know, when we read the context here, we see that Judea

  219. and Galilee and right in between that is Samaria.

  220. And we see as Jesus is leaving Judea and heading into Galilee,

  221. he has to go through Samaria. So it just lies here.

  222. And so from Judea is going all the way to some Samaria, and

  223. through Samaria he gets into Galilee.

  224. And here is where Jesus encounters A Samaritan woman,

  225. the enmity that we see happen time and again between the Jews

  226. and the Samaritans. Samaritans were considered 2nd

  227. grade citizens. They was looked down upon.

  228. They believed in the God of Abraham and Jacob, but they had

  229. no other place to go and worship.

  230. So they had a place of worship within Samaria itself.

  231. And we see this long standing feud that existed.

  232. And so it was considered a taboo to actually talk to a Samaritan

  233. person. But here is Jesus as he's

  234. walking. He's tired, He's seated there.

  235. But what we see happen is a samatan woman is coming at noon

  236. to come and take water. And it's in that same place.

  237. He needs her. You know, we, when we think

  238. about it, is just an ordinary scene where she's coming to take

  239. water. But it's one of habit.

  240. It's one of discipline. When we For those of you who are

  241. having a regular rhythm in life, you'll realize at this

  242. particular point in the morning you're doing certain things.

  243. You know, probably from 6:30 you're making coffee 644.

  244. You're putting the laundry in seven o'clock.

  245. You're doing your quiet time. These could be some of the

  246. things in which you have certain things in order.

  247. And probably this is where the Samaritan woman had this place

  248. where she had to go and take water for the rest of the day

  249. for her to use in the house. And it's in this special time

  250. she meets with Jesus. And it's interesting.

  251. As you know, Tina has been mentioning in her previous

  252. sermon about the Holy Spirit being to one of the river of

  253. God, the living water. It's beautiful how this is tying

  254. into that where Jesus is asking this woman, could you give me

  255. water to drink? And it got me thinking, what

  256. does it look like if I had to take this living water into my

  257. everyday life. You know, we we pray about it.

  258. We say God be with me today, even as I go to work.

  259. But are we specifically praying for everything that we are

  260. doing? Are we are we expecting God to

  261. show up? Because if God has to show up,

  262. we need to be open for certain disruptions to happen.

  263. The Samaritan woman made sure that this was her everyday

  264. thing. Her mundane was being disrupted.

  265. And I believe God wants us to to.

  266. And I believe God wants to disrupt our mundane a bit so

  267. that freshness can come in, so that there'll be a bit of

  268. newness that come in. There'll be life that's getting

  269. breathed. And his wind starts blowing and

  270. it gives as this breeze of comfort knowing he's in control.

  271. His living water comes in so that it wipes away everything

  272. that is weary and dry and encourages that parch and dry

  273. land to experience freshness. And you know, a sense of

  274. completion. For revival to rebirth.

  275. We need to be open for our mundanes to be disrupted.

  276. Mundanes are good. Mundanes Bring discipline.

  277. It helps us stay in focus so we can accomplish all that we set

  278. out to do. But may it also have room for

  279. revival. May it also have room to be

  280. disrupted so that the Holy Spirit can move and change

  281. certain things. Let's continue on reading John

    John 4:10–14

  282. chapter 4, verses 10 to 14. The previous few verses that she

  283. read were from NLT, but I've taken this John 410 to 14 from

  284. the message version and this is what it says.

  285. Verse 10, this is what it says. Jesus answered.

  286. If you knew the generosity of God and who I am, you would be

  287. asking me for a drink and I would give you fresh living

  288. water, the woman said. Sir, you don't even have a

  289. bucket to draw with. And this well is deep.

  290. So how are you going to get this living water?

  291. Are you a better man than our ancestor Jacob, who ducked this

  292. well and drank from it? He and his sons and livestock

  293. and passed it down to us? Jesus said everyone who drinks

  294. this water will get thirsty again.

  295. Anyone who drinks the water I give will never thirst.

  296. Not ever. The water I give will be an

  297. artisan spring within gushing fountains of endless life.

  298. It's interesting that when we read this, Jesus is asking his

  299. human form was one which probably desired, was tired, was

  300. worn out, was probably tired and wanting to have physical water.

  301. But when he saw this woman, I believe he was moved with

  302. compassion. He wanted to touch up.

  303. He wanted something in her life to change.

  304. And he says I would give you fresh living water.

  305. And many a times this revival, this disruption that happens,

  306. God will do it in such way where our logic is questioned.

  307. The Samantha's woman logic was right.

  308. She said, hey, you don't have anything here.

  309. I'm the only person who can actually take and give you this

  310. water. And what are you saying?

  311. You'll give me fresh living water.

  312. I don't see a bucket in your hand.

  313. I don't see anything where you can draw water out from.

  314. And Jesus goes on to say this profound thing, and I believe

  315. this is the truth where we will need Jesus in our life.

  316. He says he had everyone who drinks his water will get

  317. thirsty again. If we are running after physical

  318. things, we acquire it, we get it, and then we feel we don't

  319. have enough of it's OK. Is this what I pursue?

  320. I think I need to pursue more. But Jesus saying, anyone who

  321. drinks the water, I give the water that Jesus gives.

  322. The revival that Jesus gives will never thirst.

  323. Not ever. The water I give will be an

  324. artisan spring within gushing fountains of endless life.

  325. If you're taking notes, if you want to make a note on artisan

  326. spring within gushing fountains of endless life, what does that

  327. look like? Revival that the Holy Spirit

  328. wants us to participate in is fresh and it's living.

  329. It's fresh and it's living. What is fresh and living?

  330. Which means every time you ask the Holy Spirit to come into

  331. that situation, every time you ask God, come into my mundane,

  332. come into my this He will bring a fresh anointing.

  333. He will bring a living anointing.

  334. He won't allow you to operate out of yesterday's anointing.

  335. I love that a lot of us have been carrying and breezing

  336. through life, carrying old water, carrying, recycled,

  337. repurposed. But God's saying, no, I want to

  338. give you fresh and living every day.

  339. What does that look like for those of us who are parents?

  340. That's something we need every day of fresh and living water.

  341. The Holy Spirit is saying I can do that.

  342. For those of us who are married and are struggling in our

  343. marriages, he's saying I can give you that fresh and living

  344. water. Would you ask me, Don't look to

  345. your spouse, Ask me. Start praying about it.

  346. Ask for everything, however small it may be.

  347. If there are struggles, ask him. If there are communication

  348. problems, ask him. If there are struggles and

  349. getting along, ask he will find a way.

  350. He will can mend broken hearts, he can put broken hearts

  351. together, he can do everything. And the reason why I asked you

  352. to underline this word. Artisan Spring and I was just

  353. reading up on this. It's basically where this

  354. waterbed is locked in between 2 sections of ground level of dirt

  355. water and so usually what happens is this is where usually

  356. the water is not coming onto the surface at all, so it's right

  357. below in the deep. OK, so the reason why I talked

  358. about these artisan springs is it's a waterbed which is present

  359. between 2 confining beds. So these two layers can be

  360. different. In most cases it's a it's a

  361. layer where it doesn't allow the water to go.

  362. So eventually what happens is a pressure that gets formed

  363. between these two layers and the waters present there.

  364. And so when you stick an entire pipe which goes right down, it

  365. causes, it crosses through this confining bed.

  366. It could be clay, it could be a material, it could be a compound

  367. on of the earth which doesn't allow water to go through.

  368. And when you go through that and when you tap into that spring,

  369. you don't even need a water pump for the water to come out.

  370. It just starts gushing out. And that's what it says here.

  371. Gushing fountains of endless life.

  372. And God's asking today, whatever your confining beds are, would

  373. you push through so that you can put your pipe straight into my

  374. living water so that it can gush fountains of endless life?

  375. And this is what we all need. A lot of times our mundane is

  376. just gone by every day after every day, week after week,

  377. month after month, because because of us being in a place

  378. of running after EMI is making payments.

  379. You know what, I'm in this dead end job and I just have to do

  380. this because I have things to do.

  381. You need revival right now because there is something more

  382. that the Holy Spirit wants to do, something more in terms of

  383. the gushing fountains of endless life that he wants to pour into

  384. your life, into your specific life, into every area of your

  385. life. You can't discount that.

  386. You know, if I have to talk about a science experiment with

  387. this coming out of EBS, you can see it right over here behind.

  388. And if I have to take, you have these Tetrapack juices and if

  389. you hold it tightly, there's a pressure that's formed.

  390. And what happens when I poke it with a straw?

  391. Juice just keeps coming out. I don't know how to do anything

  392. because the pressure causes the juice to come.

  393. And I believe sometimes in our most crushing of these confining

  394. beds that we are, it could be work, It could be relationships.

  395. It could be the pressure of being a child.

  396. It could be the pressure of, you know, walking through some of

  397. the trauma that you've gone through.

  398. It could be everything he's saying, The pressure of that

  399. would you dig your pipe deeper in so that my living Water will

  400. start working in until it'll refresh you?

  401. It'll become your artisan spring.

  402. The clear representation for us today is are we willing to stick

  403. our pipes further in so that he will become our only source?

  404. Are you in a dry and parchy land?

  405. He is the water that you need. Are you struggling with thirst

  406. and you feel you're choking? He is the water that you need.

  407. Revival has to start with you and me.

  408. And so in our mundanes, when our mundanes get disrupted, we soon

  409. realize there's more to what God has placed me here for.

  410. It starts gushing out. It starts giving us this

  411. curiosity. God, what is it?

  412. And we start diving deeper into His word.

  413. We start spending those moments of being quiet around him.

  414. We tune our ears to His words. Not to the frequency of

  415. everything that culture is not dominating and to what social

  416. media and influencers are saying, but rather we tune it to

  417. what the Holy Spirit is saying. So as we heard, when we move

  418. towards this place and say God, and so today, even as I close

  419. the first point, I want to ask you in this revival, would you

  420. dig deep, put that pipe straight into that artisan spring so that

  421. his life would come out, his living life, The water that

  422. never runs dry, the living water would come into each and every

  423. one of our lives. The second thing that we see is

  424. Revival confronts our deepest, darkest secrets.

  425. Every day it it has to do it. It it confronts our deepest and

  426. our darkest secrets. To access this artisan spring,

  427. it has to go through some hard peeling and digging.

  428. And a lot of times it's confronting the emptiness and

  429. the lack that our lives have. You know, in the last few months

  430. I've been walking through some my own personal journey and I've

  431. realized I've had layers and layers of areas where I've just

  432. masked it, thinking, you know what, It won't come up.

  433. It won't come to the surface. But over time, I've realized the

  434. Holy Spirit causing me to nudge that space.

  435. And as I've been putting my pipe deep in, it's those pipes that

  436. aren't defining me. It's that it's the joy of his

  437. word that causes me to go deeper in always so that I'll enjoy

  438. what comes out of him. It says here in John four was 15

  439. to 20 and let's go on to read it says please Sir, the woman said,

  440. give me this water then I'll never be thirsty again and I

  441. won't have to come here to get water.

  442. Go and get your husband. Jesus told her I don't have a

  443. husband, the woman replied. Jesus said you're right, you

  444. don't have a husband, for you have had five husbands and you

  445. aren't even married to the man you're living with now.

  446. You certainly spoke the truth. So the woman said you must be a

  447. prophet. So tell me, why is that You Jews

  448. insist that Jerusalem is the only place of worship while we

  449. Samaritans claim it here in the mount of Gethism where our

  450. ancestors worshipped. We can see here the minute Jesus

  451. talks of this life giving thing, she's ready to accept it.

  452. There's a void in each and every one of our lives which only the

  453. Holy Spirit can fill. There's a sense of purpose and

  454. direction that only the Holy Spirit will cause us to have

  455. contentment in. Yes, things may not change, but

  456. because he's present, we'll have contentment.

  457. We will start seeing things his way.

  458. And here She asks Jesus, give me this water so that I won't be

  459. thirsty again, thinking that I may don't have to come back to

  460. the well. But she goes on to and Jesus

  461. goes on to say conference by asking her where's your husband?

  462. And even as she answers saying I don't have a husband, she Jesus

  463. goes on to tell her history in just a verse.

  464. And that's what many a times we are unable to participate in

  465. revivals because we have a story cooked up.

  466. We have a story that we've time and again told ourselves and

  467. made it the truth. But Jesus saying, hey, when you

  468. come to me, I know everything. I know everything.

  469. I know your intentions. I know how the story came about.

  470. I want you to admit the real truth.

  471. And we can see here that when Jesus points that out, she puts

  472. a guard on and says you are a prophet.

  473. What does this look like? We can pass off by saying our

  474. version of the story, but the Holy Spirit knows us inside out.

  475. It is there. He wants us to be real to

  476. ourselves. We need to come to our place and

  477. say admit this is my wrongdoing. This is something that I'm God,

  478. I've, I've been struggling with. I've covered it up.

  479. I've probably fabricated a good story so that I'll be acceptable

  480. by people outside or I'll be it'll be OK for people to know

  481. who I am. But Jesus is saying and the Holy

  482. Spirit is saying today, if revival has to be birthed in

  483. you, we need to come to terms with the story and with the sins

  484. that you're dealing with. Not an embellished version, not

  485. something that looks well. Because today we're living in a

  486. world of filters. Filters look good, but sin is

  487. sin and we need to come to the Father and say God, I'm sorry, I

  488. need your forgiveness. Jesus does not need any

  489. convincing of our story. He knows all of me, even my

  490. intentions, in which I'm telling the story.

  491. And I love how the Samaritan woman did not try to justify

  492. what Jesus said. Oh, God, I'm lonely.

  493. That's why I've been, you know, switching partners.

  494. Oh, you know what? I don't know if this guy's

  495. committed. He's probably just here for a

  496. fling. He didn't.

  497. She didn't elaborate. She came to terms where this is

  498. my life, This is where I'm rock bottom.

  499. And that's where Jesus met with her, started giving her the

  500. truth, and said you can experience this living water.

  501. She deflects it by saying why do you insist that we come to

  502. Jerusalem and we see? In the next few verses?

  503. Jesus addresses that. But the truth is, today, are we

  504. willing to allow the Holy Spirit to revive us so that he can take

  505. everything of us? When he wants to use us and

  506. shape us and mold us, he wants to take everything.

  507. And we sometimes are scared to show our sin, our brokenness,

  508. our emptiness to the Creator himself, you know Genesis

  509. chapter one verse 2 says the earth was formless and empty and

  510. darkness covered the deep waters and the Spirit of God was

  511. hovering over the surface of the water.

  512. The Spirit of God was in holding over the earth, which was

  513. formless and empty and dark. There's no amount of darkness

  514. that will scare him away. If he can shape and bring life

  515. into the earth, he can do that same into you.

  516. So quit trying to cover up and tell God or put it in good words

  517. to explain to God. Go out there and just say God.

  518. This is who I am. These are my intentions.

  519. This is what I think. My, my, these are things that

  520. I've struggled with. These are my my closeted issues

  521. lot, which no one else knows. But I'm willing to open it up

  522. because I want revival to come in.

  523. I want revival to come in. The Holy Spirit is I love what

  524. it says in the message version. In fact, it says he's owe

  525. everything that is formless, empty and dark.

  526. Earth was a soup of nothingness, A bottomless emptiness, an inky

  527. blackness. Today, if you have to describe

  528. sin, it will come under the any of this category.

  529. You might feel like it's nothing.

  530. You might feel the sin that you're in.

  531. You are struggling to break the cycle of guilt.

  532. You give up, you feel guilty, and then you go back to it.

  533. You feel guilty again. You go back to it and it's just

  534. seems like a bottomless pit and you just feel that part of your

  535. heart is just marked with blackness.

  536. But God saying, I want to touch that very part and revive it.

  537. The Holy Spirit is never afraid to handle our mess, be it

  538. whatever shape, whatever size, however cracked it is when we

  539. allow the Holy Spirit to come, and even when we're looking at

  540. the Holy Spirit, this time as a river of God, as living water.

  541. Water can take up any shape, it can come into any crack, it can

  542. come in and flood that space. But would you give room if an

  543. iceberg could break a section of the ship on the board of the

  544. Titanic and cause the entire ship to sink?

  545. I believe water can come in. Give him, give him room so that

  546. he'll be able to enter and give him room so that he'll be able

  547. to come in and shape you and break you.

  548. Break that pattern of sin. Break the clutches of what Satan

  549. is having over you, John 421 goes on to say in message.

  550. And So what? It says the response.

  551. Believe me, woman, the time is coming when the Samaritans will

  552. worship the Father. Neither here at this mountain

  553. nor there in Jerusalem. You worship guessing in the

  554. dark. We Jews worship in the clear

  555. light of day. God's way of salvation is made

  556. available through the Jews. But the time is coming.

  557. It has, in fact come when when what you're called will not

  558. matter, and where you go to worship will not matter.

  559. It's who you are and the way you live that count before God.

  560. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth.

  561. That's the kind of people the Father's looking out for those

  562. who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their

  563. worship, God is sure being itself spirit.

  564. Those who worship Him must do it out of their very being, their

  565. spirits, their true selves in adoration, the woman said.

  566. I don't know about that. I do know that the Messiah is

  567. coming. When he arrives, we'll get the

  568. whole story and Jesus response. I love it.

  569. He says I am, he said. Jesus, you don't have to wait

  570. any longer or look any further. The very question what the

  571. Samaritan woman posed was to come into the technicality of

  572. it. Saying you say that we're to

  573. come to Jerusalem, but we are worshipping here, But Jesus goes

  574. to the important issue. Saying no, when you worship the

  575. way you live counts before God. Our worship must engage in

  576. pursuit of truth. God is looking for those kind of

  577. people. And so today when you and I are

  578. in this walk moving towards worshipping God for asking for

  579. his revival, may he invade every area of our lives.

  580. May there be no area that is not where he's not able to convict

  581. us about or we are so sensitive that we don't allow God to push

  582. the buttons. God should have a free reign

  583. over us where he's able to push us whereas he's able to say you

  584. know what if you're stuck up in this, this is the very area I'm

  585. going to push you. I'm going to train you in this

  586. so that you allow me to be controlling of allow me to be in

  587. control. I don't want you to be in

  588. control. So today what happened when the

  589. somatic woman heard this, she could put two and two together

  590. and realized they said of a Messiah who's coming, who will,

  591. who will set right, who we'll be able to worship.

  592. And Jesus says I am that person, I am that person.

  593. And so today church, I want us to ask us personally, each and

  594. everyone of us asking ourselves, God, would you come into those

  595. areas where I have left undealt with, I've, I've probably

  596. brushed through it thinking you know what is allowed.

  597. It's OK. It's permissible.

  598. But God, is it permissible to you?

  599. Would you convict me? Would you show me?

  600. I pray God There are areas in my life which I've hidden away from

  601. you. I've failed to confess it,

  602. thinking that if I confess it I might be the worst Sinner.

  603. But God saying nothing would scare me.

  604. Would you come? Would you allow my living water

  605. to flow through? For those of you who are really

  606. struggling to give up sin patterns, I would request you.

  607. Would your hearts cry be for revival, To come and let the

  608. living water flow through you? Let him go.

  609. Go to him. Go to the source everyday.

  610. Dig deeper your trenches so that you go in.

  611. Don't let the markings of your trenches cause you to not dig

  612. deeper. Dig deeper so that when the pipe

  613. hits the living water, you'll experience life, you'll

  614. experience liberation, you'll experience truth.

  615. So as we've seen two things. First, the revival.

  616. As it starts with us, it meets us in our mundane.

  617. The second thing when it meets us in our mundane it deals with

  618. our deepest, darkest secrets so that God can do his work in and

  619. through us, so that we can have living water.

  620. And the third thing is this revival experience that we've

  621. had moves others towards transformation.

  622. John chapter 4, verse 39 to 42, goes on to say many of the

    John 4:39–42

  623. Samaritans from that village committed themselves to him

  624. because of the woman's witness. He knew all about the things I

  625. did. He knows me inside and out.

  626. They asked him to stay on. So Jesus stayed two days.

  627. A lot more people entrusted their lives to him.

  628. When they heard that, what he had to say, they said to the

  629. woman, we are no longer taking this on your say so we've heard

  630. it for ourselves and know it for sure.

  631. He's the savior of the world. The revival starts in me.

  632. When it meets with me, when it deals with all my the deepest,

  633. darkest areas of my life. I'm unable to contain it.

  634. Why? Because I start understanding

  635. that I can live in freedom. Jesus gave her the living water

  636. and when she experienced it, she in fact left her thing there.

  637. And she goes into the village to go and tell group of people who

  638. probably knew her and the way she was living.

  639. There's a man here who knows me inside out.

  640. She probably didn't have a very good reputation, but in spite of

  641. that, she went. And when she went as a man who

  642. knows everything I've done come and meet this man.

  643. They took her at a word because if someone had to know

  644. everything that she's done, it definitely had to be someone

  645. like God. So they came and they found out

  646. it was God. The personal story of the

  647. Samatar woman caused a stir in her itself, she realized.

  648. This is my story. The living water that is coming

  649. has is starting to work in me is my story.

  650. And many times we think when we have to share, we always are

  651. wanting a story to share. Share from your own life, share

  652. of what God's done. Even if it sounds small, it's

  653. OK. God is not looking at the

  654. quantity of our story. He's just looking at the fact

  655. whether he's present in that story.

  656. Because if he's present in that story, the same living water

  657. that worked in you will start working in others.

  658. Too. Many times you're thinking, you

  659. know what? I need to have a perfect story.

  660. I need to have a good intro and a good outer.

  661. I need to have a hook. If you have the Holy Spirit and

  662. if he's intertwined in your testimony, that's more than

  663. enough. We see when the living water

  664. came into the life of the Samaritan woman, it transformed

  665. her, It changed her. And she went about telling what

  666. God had done in her life. And I'm asking you today, if

  667. revival has to start spreading from us, It has to start with

  668. us. It has to start with you and me.

  669. It has to start with us telling about our encounter with the

  670. Holy Spirit. So what is God telling you

  671. today, two days from now? What has God been speaking to

  672. you? What has He been doing in and

  673. through you? What is He revealing you?

  674. What are some of the dreams and the visions that He's given to

  675. you? What are some of the deeper

  676. insights that he's been talking to you from His word?

  677. Is it coming in alignment? Because when you start doing

  678. that, you'll start seeing connecting pieces time and

  679. again. That's why when we gather as a

  680. church, when we gather as communities, when we gather as

  681. fellow believers together, and when we see that a lot in the

  682. early church, when they gather together, the reason why they

  683. were able to have a lot of community time was the fact that

  684. in their personal time they saw. Some revelation the Holy Spirit

  685. gave them come into, you know, some another person would have

  686. probably got a song or a word. And when they came together and

  687. everything came together, they knew this was what God was

  688. calling them to do. This is what God's calling us to

  689. step into. This is what God is calling and

  690. speaking to us as a generation. This is an indication of what

  691. freedom looks like for what the samatan woman did.

  692. Because when she walked out of the power of darkness into the

  693. power of light, when she walked out of the freedom that came

  694. because the clutches of sin were broken, that living water, she

  695. was able to go and testify. And the fruit of that was people

  696. came to see who this God was, who this person was, that was

  697. able to identify her and tell her whatever wrong she did.

  698. She probably came to that well alone, knowing that she'll be

  699. talked about, she'll be scorned, she'll be looked down.

  700. But what she received, she took it out there, and she came and

  701. draw. A lot of her brokenness was

  702. hers, but when she laid it at the altar for Jesus, when his

  703. living water redeemed it, it became a testimony in her

  704. brokenness. She felt empty, and she could

  705. have kept the door shut, sitting all by her cells, because she

  706. was already judged, ridiculed, mocked, scorned.

  707. But rather her brokenness made room for a saviour who wanted to

  708. change her state. In Two Corinthians, chapter 12,

  709. verses 9, This is what it says, But he answered me.

  710. My grace is always more than enough for you, and my power

  711. finds it's full expression through your weakness.

  712. So I'll celebrate my weakness, For when I'm weak, I sense more

  713. deeply the mighty part of Christ living in me.

  714. The power of Jesus is evident when we are allowing Him to move

  715. in, and through our weakness His grace and His power finds its

  716. full expression. So today, whatever it is, allow

  717. him to invade you with His living water.

  718. Because what will come out of that will be glorious.

  719. What will come out of that will be a Jesus testimony.

  720. What will come out of that will be the outworking of the Holy

  721. Spirit. And then through you, what will

  722. come out of that will be you saying this is not me, but this

  723. is of the one who is in me, that I'm able to do all this.

  724. And what we see in the conclusion in John chapter 4 is

    John 4 chapter mention

  725. the people asked him to stay. And I love this section where

  726. they tell her, you know what, We no longer are believing this

  727. because you told, but we are. We've heard it for ourselves and

  728. know for sure that he's a savior of the world are starting.

  729. The igniter would be a testimony, but the sustaining

  730. part will be his Holy Spirit's work.

  731. So a lot of us today, what God's preparing us as a nation?

  732. What God's preparing us as individuals?

  733. What God's preparing us as churches and as marketplace

  734. people and as His children who are in this world, not of this

  735. world, is that we will be ready for a revival that starts with

  736. you and me, ready for a revival that will change us, which will

  737. change, transform us personally. So when we take it out, our

  738. testimony with him will bring transformation to others.

  739. And I'm sure at the end of the day, that living water cost a

  740. revival in that own village, in that own town.

  741. And so today, can you and I be partakers of that?

  742. A lot more people entrusted their lives to him when they

  743. heard what he had to say. And I love that again.

  744. I am repeating that again. We've heard it for ourselves and

  745. know it's for sure he's the saviour of the world.

  746. They will taste and see that the Lord is good.

  747. That when they look into our lives, when they see our change,

  748. when they see what God's doing in and through us, they will be

  749. encouraged to seek for themselves and they will find

  750. him. We do not know who God will

  751. bring into salvation through our story.

  752. We can discount it because of our low self esteem, because of

  753. the nature of our brokenness, because of whatever we've been

  754. through. But when we bring God into the

  755. mix, when we bring the Holy Spirit and His living, what into

  756. the mix, His grades, His strength, His redemption power

  757. gets mixed into our battle of our lives.

  758. And we are not our you're not us anymore, We are His.

  759. And we start pointing everyone to Jesus because he's in the

  760. mix. He, he, his hand is in that

  761. battle. He's starting to shape us, He's

  762. shot, starting to mold us. And I pray and ask that the

  763. living water will become ours forever.

  764. So Church, even as I close, I just want to ask specifically

  765. that as we prepare for Pentecost Sunday, we won't be ashamed, we

  766. won't be stiff, but we would rather be flexible.

  767. We would allow him to say, Lord, would you move in and throw us

  768. today? I want that artisanal spring.

  769. I want that revival to happen. Lord Jesus, in you, in me, in

  770. everyone that gathers, in everyone that calls on the name

  771. of Jesus, that they'll be revival.

  772. So today, even as I pray, can we just pray together that we'll

  773. experience his revival? Lord, I pray even right now for

  774. all those who are listening for, who are watching.

  775. I pray even right now. Holy Spirit, would you Would you

  776. just flood open into their lives?

  777. Lord, no longer, Lord, will they be so worried.

  778. I pray every worry, every shame, every guilt will be broken in

  779. the name of Jesus. We pray for your blood covering

  780. to Pierce through everything. I pray every abuse, every

  781. torment, everything that's been spoken off and spoken about and

  782. spoken into will be completely broken.

  783. Lord Jesus in the name of Jesus that they'll find deliverance.

  784. Every shackle will be broken. Every shame and guilt will be

  785. gone. Every cycle will be broken,

  786. every addiction will be broken. That you will set your people

  787. and your children free. Lord, we are about your mission.

  788. Lord Jesus and I thank you for the word revival.

  789. I breathe revival into my own life.

  790. I breathe your revival into each and everyone.

  791. Right now I ask you to breathe it in.

  792. Lord Jesus, I pray living what I pray we will all take our pipes

  793. and dig in to find that artisanal spring.

  794. Lord, I pray we will breakthrough every shackle,

  795. every everything that's taken shape to get that living water

  796. gushing out so that we will live in the fullness that comes from

  797. you. Lord, I pray even right now that

  798. our mundanes will see revival, disrupt our mundanes.

  799. I pray, Lord, our deepest, darkest secrets will experience

  800. a revival and they will get extinguished, gone once for all,

  801. Lord Jesus, the marks of it. Lord will be ones of redemption,

  802. one of grace, one of strength, one of overcoming by the blood

  803. of the Lamb and by the word of your testimony, Lord Jesus.

  804. It'll happen right now, Lord. I pray, Lord, that revival will

  805. just not stop with us, Lord, That we will be able to share

  806. our story with you and it, Lord, so that it'll bring about many

  807. others to find truth. And they'll be able to

  808. experience that living water, be glorified, be honored, be

  809. praised. Thank you for all that you're

  810. doing. Go before us.

  811. I pray, Lord, for your blood covering over each and every one

  812. of us. That you would strengthen us.

  813. I pray even as we are in the peak of summer.

  814. Protection will be upon each and everyone.

  815. I pray your hand of mercy and grace upon each and everyone.

  816. Lord, we thank you. Strengthen us, take charge, be

  817. glorified. We thank you for all that we get

  818. to do, Lord Jesus, because we are your children.

  819. I pray that we'll have testimony after testimony of your living

  820. water flowing in and through our lives, and we will see a

  821. revival. I pray even as you wait

  822. expectantly for this week, Lord, we ask that you would show up.

  823. Lord, there will be a revival that starts birthing out in

  824. different parts, in different sections in our online

  825. community, in our physical gathering, we'll see revival

  826. happen. Lord, so that you'll be

  827. glorified. In your most holy name, we pray.

  828. Amen. Amen.

  829. So, church, even as you step out into your mundane, even as you

  830. start working through and seeing all your deepest darkest

  831. secrets, I pray revival will be birthed.

  832. I pray as living water will flow through and leave you changed.

  833. I pray your story and the experience of that revival with

  834. Jesus and the Holy Spirit in the mix will bring about, will bring

  835. about a revival in others. That you will be the reason that

  836. many are able to see Jesus clearly, will be filled with the

  837. Holy Spirit and live in the holiness that he has called us.

  838. I pray that you have a blessed week ahead.

  839. God bless you all. So church can I close the

  840. service. May the love of the Father, the

  841. grace of his only Son, Jesus Christ, and the sweet fellowship

  842. of the Holy Spirit rest and abide with us now and

  843. forevermore And all God's people said, Amen.

  844. Amen. Have a blessed week.

  845. God bless you. Thanks for listening to this

  846. message. We hope you were blessed to hear

  847. more messages like this. Make sure to subscribe and check

  848. out our podcast channel for past episodes.

  849. If you like what you are hearing, consider rating us,

  850. subscribing, and even sharing it with friends.

  851. That would really help us. For more content from Via Zion

  852. and to connect with us, go to Via Zion dot in.

  853. Remember, whoever finds Jesus finds life.